It is with a deep sense of love and gratitude for the great benefit received, that I send this testimony of what Christian Science has done for me. For many years I tried to be satisfied with the religion of my fathers, drifting from one unpleasant experience to another, affiliating with different denominations, ever seeking hungrily for the true idea of God. meeting with many disappointments, bitter experiences (among them the death of a brother in the ministry, who died a drunkard), until at last my confidence in orthodoxy was gone, and I never entered a church but twice in eight or nine years. I began to drink, and the habit grew on me more and more.
But God was indeed good to me, for one Sunday in January, 1909, it was divine Love surely that led me to attend a Christian Science lecture given in this city. I had taken several stiff drinks, and out of curiosity wandered into the opera house—perhaps if the saloons had been open and my supply of liquor had not been exhausted I might not have gone; but the important fact is that I went! The lecturer soon caught my interest, and held it until the closing word. I resolved to read the literature carelessly stuffed into my pocket as it was handed me on entering the place. 1 did read it that night, and knew that at last I had found reality, the living God, and the desire to drink left me like a bad dream. During the first week after the lecture I took two drinks, and while friends sagely shook their heads and cautioned me as to the danger of breaking off suddenly, especially when I had been used to consuming such enormous quantities of strong drink each day. I have never suffered any effects from so doing, except a marked improvement in health and an increasing desire to know more of the God that Christian Science has revealed to me. I might add that when I told my old friend, the barkeeper, that I was through with drink, he thrust his hand across the bar and sincerely congratulated me.
About two weeks after I came into Christian Science I had a very severe attack of liver complaint, such as I had suffered with at times for over thirty years and for which I had taken much powerful medicine. I sent for a Christian Science practitioner, and in about four hours was at work. A few hours later I suffered a more severe attack than the first, and had to be taken home in a carriage and put to bed. Treatment in Christian Science was given, and the next morning I arose, feeling all right, and went to business. I have never lost an hour from business since, and have taken no medicine.
